TAPR's Statement on Spread Spectrum Technology Development

TAPR was founded in 1982 as a membership supported non-profit amateur radio
research and development organization with specific interests in the areas
of packet and digital communications. In the tradition of TAPR, the Board
of Directors at their Fall 1995 meeting voted that the organization would
begin to actively pursue the research and development of amateur radio
spread spectrum digital communications. At the Spring 1996 board of
directors meeting, the following statement of purpose was passed:

"TAPR believes that the technical facts support our conviction that
conventional and spread spectrum systems can coexist without detriment to
conventional systems on all frequencies from MF to EHF. To this end, TAPR
will begin to research spread spectrum systems that will develop technology
for future deployment."

As stated above, the TAPR board feels strongly about TAPR's focus on spread
spectrum technology and especially how it relates to the potential
coexistence on frequencies that will have increased number of users
occupying them. The amateur radio bands, like other spectrum will become
more heavily utilized in the future. It is in the interest of amateur radio
to develop systems that are interference-resistant while not interfering
with other primary or secondary users on those frequencies.

TAPR understands the concerns many have with the new technology, and
believes that efforts in both education and research is necessary in order
to allay the fears about interference and to demonstrate the benefits of the
technology.

TAPR believes that todays' communications technology is moving toward all
digital transmitters and receivers. These advances in technology, combined
with the swift evolution of cell based transmission and switching protocols,
are opening up a new set of possibilities for unique new services utilizing
intelligent networks. These will contain smart transmitters, receivers, and
switches. Today's Internet is perhaps the best example of a self-regulating
structure that embodies these new technological approaches to communications
in the networking domain. However, to date, many of these innovations have
not moved into the wireless networking arena. TAPR will work on moving
these innovations into the amateur radio community.

TAPR feels that the VHF/UHF/SHF radio networks of the future will involve a
mixture of links and switches of different ownership, which terminate at the
end-user via relatively short-distance links. What will then be required is
a built-in, distributed, self-governing set of protocols to cause the
network's behavior to make more efficient use of a limited, common shared
resource, the radio spectrum. Creating such a self-regulating structure for
the optimal sharing of spectrum will require much effort.

One of the major problems which stands in the way of these new approaches
today is the current FCC regulatory environment and the manner in which
spectrum is managed and allocated under its rules.

Historically, the current regulatory approach to radio has been based upon
the technology that was in use at the time that the Communications Act of
1934 was framed, basically what we would call today, 'dumb' transmitters
speaking to 'dumb' receivers. The technology of that time required reserved
bandwidths to be set aside for each licensed service so that spectrum would
be available when needed. Given this regulatory approach, many new
applications cannot be accommodated since there is no available unallocated
spectrum to 'park' new services. However, given the new set of tools
available to the entrepreneur with the advent of digital technology, what
once were 'dumb' transmitters and receivers can now be smart devices which
are capable of exercising greater judgment in the effective use and sharing
of spectrum. The more flexible the tools that we incorporate in these
devices, the greater the number of uses that can be accommodated in a fixed,
shared spectrum.

Therefore, TAPR will focus its spread spectrum effort in the following
areas:

TAPR will work to promote rules and technologies to make the most efficient
use of the spectrum through power control, forward error correction, and
other means to minimize interference among spread spectrum users and
existing communications systems.

TAPR will work on issues and efforts with other national organizations to
change the regulatory environment and rules in order to promote the
experimentation, development, and later deployment of spread spectrum
technology.

TAPR will work to develop information on the topic to help educate members
and the amateur community as a whole about spread spectrum technology, and
to disseminate this information via printed publications, the World Wide
Web, presentations at conferences and meetings, and other means.

TAPR will work to foster experimentation, development, and design of spread
spectrum systems, and to facilitate the exchange of information between the
researchers and other interested parties.

TAPR will work to develop a national intra-network to foster the deployment
of future high-speed spread spectrum systems into regional and local
communities, including the development of suitable protocols and guidelines
for deployment of these systems.

TAPR will work with commercial companies who manufacture spread spectrum
devices which operate in spectrum shared by the amateur radio service (ARS),
in order to make them more aware of the nature of ARS operations on those
bands with the goal to work towards the deployment of devices which will
minimize interference between all spectrum sharing partners.

TAPR will work with commercial companies who manufacture spread spectrum
devices in order to identify equipments that can be either used or modified
for use for Part 97 operation.

Adopted by the TAPR Board on September 20th, 1996
at Seatac, Washington Board Meeting.